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View Full Version : D+D small group "raid" encounter



evilserran
2014-02-07, 09:42 AM
I came up with a fun concept i want to try, any opinions would be awesome as well as advice.

In my world, it has mostly been destroyed, most gods are dead, dying or very weak. There are a few heroes that hid from the giant war that ravaged the world and are currently residing in a town. My PC's are trying to bring Mystra back to life via 7 essence orbs that summon shenron... errr... that will force her soul back to the weave.

The main enemy is a Vampiric, mummified Marillith with 15 levels of sorcerer. I gave her two bonus feats to make her a raid monster. She had DOUBLED hp bringing her to nearly 1400 hp. She is gargantuan, causing her to have longer reach, but lower ac's and easier to hit, however her weapons went much larger, to 2d6. She goes into initiative twice, once to cast spells, and once to melee. She can move on either turn.

The party is level 10 (might be 11 by the time they get to her. Naturally, they are dramatically underpowered to win this fight. Several of these hidden heroes have become friends with the party. So far they have got the word of 4 to help

Level 13 scout/12 ranger shade, Treasure of Mask
Level 20 bard/5 Arcane archer, Lady Sisca the beautiful
Level 18 Fighter/4 Kensai/3 Barbarian Firbolg tank with 44 ac, 459 hp and dr15
Minster 15 Wizard/10 Archmage

What these four do is pretty obvious. on top of that they have a chance to find

Serran, a cloistered cleric who can cast an epic Aid/Rage combination that lasts for 24 hours. Hp +100, AC+10, Hit +10, Damage + 5 but he most likely will not fight.

Orso and olf aged 20 Druid/5 Master of Many forms who has taken the vow of nonviolence, but has mastered healing powers from ranged, and has a bevvy of animals that will protect him.

Nameless the half celestial halfling Monk 20/scout 5

So far i have tested the highest dps in the party they can do 50-100 points of damage, the shade can do 100-150 so i think her defenses are good, i might need to wittle down her damage though.

On top of that, all her spells are summons or aoe's with the ability to change the shapes of the aoes to suit her needs. The first half of the fight she will just keep summoning more monsters usually the d4 or 2d4 options. The shade will most likely be able to drop 2-4 a round as well as the archmage. I like to think i am a fluid DM and if this goes sideways real fast i can swap some stuff around

(grammar correction edit)

Firest Kathon
2014-02-07, 11:18 AM
One question comes to mind: What will the PCs be doing while the NPCs and the raid monster battle it out?

Vhaidara
2014-02-07, 12:40 PM
Seconded. This is going to be the party watching you epically battle yourself. unless you give them each control of a few legendary heroes.

Next problem: Action economy will murder the marlith. Potentially 7 25th level characters?the is no challenge to that.

Final objection: Elminster's statblock is presented in the epic level handbook, and I insist you use the awesomeness that is a Fighter 1/Rogue 2/Cleric 3/Wizard 24/ Archmage 5. Yes, that is actually Elminster's level progression. It is truly glorious.

winter92
2014-02-07, 01:02 PM
The trick you face is to come up with some way for the heroes to aid the battle without doing all the work and making your PCs useless. That's a hard task if they're doing all the damage and also the only ones who can tank the boss.

Given the setup "unstoppable beastie opposed by heroes of yore", I think there's actually room to take a guide from videogames here. Picture something like the boss fight of Halo 2 - you have an enemy with an unbreakable shield, and an ally who takes down that shield briefly, but nothing else. Alternatively your heroes could soak damage and fight summoned creatures, but not attack.

I'm thinking that something along the lines of the Aleax mechanics could serve you well here: your PCs go off and do task X that grants them mystic sygils. Only the bearers of these sygils can hurt the boss, and so the NPC heroes come along to murder her summons, tank her attacks, and buff/heal the PCs like mad. Your PCs get to fight a foe far tougher than them while feeling like badasses because NPCs are smoothing out all of the little hurdles and buffing them to new heights.

evilserran
2014-02-19, 09:21 PM
Whilst the epic heroes fight the BBEG, the BBEG is going to be summoning in hordesof undeads/wolves and demons to "slaughter" everyone else. Thats what the party should/is exopected to focus on, while taking pot shots at the BBEG.

Endarire
2014-02-19, 10:20 PM
Baleful polymorph or a similar save-or-'die' spell can easily end this, if the foe fails her save. Given at least a 1/20 chance this will work (barring immunities), you may have an epic toad on your hands.

The Glyphstone
2014-02-19, 10:25 PM
Whilst the epic heroes fight the BBEG, the BBEG is going to be summoning in hordesof undeads/wolves and demons to "slaughter" everyone else. Thats what the party should/is exopected to focus on, while taking pot shots at the BBEG.

Should really be the other way round. In this setup, your player characters - the people who the story should be focusing on - are relegated to backup/escorts for the 'hero' NPCs, killing waves of minor mooks while the 'heroes' battle the BBEG. You've gotten so caught up in the epicness of your story that you've made the PCs sidekicks to the people who matter.

Not to mention the problem of making mooks who are weak enough to let the party kill them, yet strong enough that the 'heroes' would be threatened by them.

Hiro Protagonest
2014-02-19, 10:59 PM
Yeah, um, the idea of being not as well-equipped as some other people and therefore their job is to fight minions while the stronger guys fight the big guy and will let you have any stuff that isn't better than what they have (as well as stuff they had that gets replaced) works in an MMO, where the more powerful people are also PCs, and also once had to grind up that gear (and if they were the first, then they didn't have more powerful guys to fight the boss for them), but it doesn't work in a tabletop RPG.